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Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Mavis Staples To Appear At New Yorker Festival

The incomparable soul and gospel singer Mavis Staples will appear this October 1st at the 2011 New Yorker Festival, the esteemed magazine's three-day celebration of arts, literature, and ideas. This year's event is entitled a "conversation with music" and will take place at the historic Gramercy Theatre. It will be moderated by the magazine's Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer Lawrence Wright.

Mavis Staples is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and listed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. The legendary artist is currently in the midst of a stunning creative resurgence with her Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) produced album entitled You Are Not Alone which the magazine Mojo called "a contender for album of the year." The album won a Grammy Award for "Best Americana Album," a selection the LA Times heralded as the year's "most deserved win."

Staples will appear at the New Yorker Festival with a distinguished and diverse roster of writers, thinkers and artists, including Zach Galifianakis, Ralph Fiennes, and Jonathan Franzen. The event is expected to sell out and draw close to twenty thousand people from around the world.The Chicago Tribune described a recent Staples' live show as "a ferocious, bring-it-on performance... downright fierce."